Legg Mason and T. Rowe Price increased their headcount by 8.9% and 8.7%, respectively, in 2017. J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs added the most staff in absolute terms, adding 9,000 and 2,200 employees, respectively. The former employs about 250,000 total employees, the latter about 34,000. BlackRock, which employed 13,000 people in 2016, has not yet reported 2017 employee data. BlackRock's $6 trillion AUM milestone was biggest fourth-quarter story surrounding the manager after it took in $367 billion in new client money during the year.
Blackstone was another manager that had not yet reported employee data.